Aeolus Investigations Episode 13

Available from Amazon.com.

Lexi Stevens was out of the picture for five years, leaving her younger sister Allie as the acting Marshal of the Accord. Yes, she made it back, but the Accord wasn’t stagnant during that time. Let’s see what her sister, Allie was up to.

Even after Lexi and her husband, Ron Samue, made it back home, there were other, very significant goings on that are parts of the Aeolus Investigations saga. The couple had their second child — their first daughter — whom they named Christine. At eight-years-old, Christine believed herself to be weird. By the time Lexi found out why she thought that, she had to point out that Chrissy was more aptly described as “Weirdly awesome.”

Urania narrates this episode. The sample chapter that follows is chapter 27, which is the beginning of Christine’s first adventure, an all-girl camping trip.

Chapter 27 – Christine

Christine Samue woke with a start, her breath coming in short, rapid gasps, her heart thudding in her chest. Something was wrong. She wasn’t sure what it was that woke her, but for the first time in her young life that she could remember, she was frightened. She grabbed her flashlight and flicked it on. Her five-year-old sister, Fermata, was still sound asleep in her small sleeping bag, clutching her small, stuffed bull. Christine had met Fermata’s real-life bull, so she didn’t think it was that weird a toy for her to be cuddling with. Fermata loved that bull — well, both the toy and the real one. When Christine had been Fermata’s age, she had carried around a unicorn. She still hadn’t met a real-life unicorn.

Odd, rustling noises, the sound of people, or of something, moving around, came from outside of her tent. There were wild animals in the area but the adults had promised that their campfire would scare them away. She didn’t think she was hearing animals. The noises reminded her that she was wearing Aeolus Investigations’s comm-gear. Her mom, Lexi Stevens, Marshal of the Accord, had let her have it specially for this trip, terming it “prudent.”

Christine supposed it was. It wasn’t like she had been singled out because of her age. All of the adults where networked in, as well. As was Fermata. It was probably the first time her Aunt Alexa had worn comm-gear, too. With the comms, not only did they have the ability to call for help, the integral GPS trackers would make it easy for Urania, their starship, to find any of them if they got lost in the wilderness. That definitely made it prudent. After all, the eight of them were the only people on this virgin planet.

“Mom? Is everything OK?” She kept her voice low, but she knew how the comm-gear worked. The software would figure out who she was talking to and amplify her voice to a normal level in that person’s ear.

She got no response. “Aunt Urania, can you tell if anything is going on in the camp?”

Unlike her Aunt Alexa (her Mom’s step-sister) and her Aunt Allie (Mom’s biological sister, sort of), both of whom wore the title of “Aunt” legitimately, Urania was the sentient command computer of her family’s personal starship. She was now parked twenty-three miles downriver from their camp. When Christine went to bed last night, Aunt Urania’s avatar had been sitting with the adults enjoying a glass of wine. Out here, away from the ship, she would have been drinking real wine along with the rest of them. On board the ship, she generally consumed simulated food and drink.

It was definitely ominous that Christine got no response from her. It seemed unlikely that anything on this planet could affect the group’s comm-gear. Which left, what? Hostile aliens and a cloaked starship? Christine knew that was always a possibility. That was just one of the many things she wasn’t really supposed to know anything about.

Urania was never not paying attention, at least where the children were concerned. As much as Christine tried not to admit it, she was an eight-year-old realist, making her, as well as Fermata — her foster-sister — one of “the children” in the eyes of the grownups. Fermata, on the other hand, was in the neighborhood of one hundred and ten thousand years old and still a five-year-old. Life in her mother’s orbit was weird sometimes. Actually, frequently.

She knew enough about her parent’s lives, far more than they knew she knew, to appreciate that weirdness was par for the course in her family. If anyone ever wrote a biography of her mom and dad, they would have every right to entitle it “The Weird Chronicles,” although “Chronicles of the Weird” had a better ring to it. Occasionally, usually when she was sitting alone enjoying the simple thoughts of the animals in one of the park environments on Storm Gate — her homeworld — she wondered if she was the weirdest in the bunch. She wasn’t disturbed by the realization that she probably was. Although it was hard to compete with her ancient foster-sister for that designation.

Christine scrambled forward and unzipped the flap of the tent far enough so that she could peek out. She didn’t see any danger. What she did see looked quite weird. Of course it does. Right? It looked like all of the adults on this mother-daughter camping trip Mom had arranged were heading off into the woods. That was the cause of the rustling noises she had heard. They weren’t even trying to move silently, a skill all of them possessed.

Witches! They’re a coven of witches. Sneaking off to perform a secret ritual by the light of the full moon deep in the woods. She realized how foolish that was as soon as she thought it. There was no full moon tonight. And this planet had two of them. Maybe they’re right to think of me as a child. Of course, my mom really is a witch, or rather a sorceress, on Eloisa, the world where she found Fermata. That’s why Fermata has a bull. Mom accidentally conjured it the first time she attempted to make a cheeseburger out of nothing when she was still learning to control her magic. A lot of weird things happened to her, and Dad, while they were there. Her magical abilities fade rapidly when not on Eloisa. That’s kind of a shame. I wonder if what happened to them on Eloisa has anything to do with why I’m strong? I wonder if Mom has thought of that?

Stepping through the flap, she chased after them, trying to be silent. Oddly, the other women were outdistancing both Mom and Allie, the strongest two in their group. That might be because while the rest of them looked to be walking almost normally, her two closest relatives were moving with jerky steps, shuffling as though they were movie zombies, or more realistically, fighting compulsions. Whatever the cause, it looked weird.

Christine watched for another minute before she ran forward and tugged on Lexi’s arm. “Mom?”

Allie heard her voice, too, and with one foot off of the ground, almost pivoted around to look in her direction. Despite making the effort, Allie wound up putting the foot down more or less in front of her, taking another awkward step toward wherever it was they were headed. Lexi looked down at Christine. A flash of puzzlement crossed her features. Then her expression hardened and she said, quite clearly, “Run, Chrissy.”

Christine was a good girl. She was well behaved. She obeyed her parents — almost always. Where should I run? Back to camp? It’s three hundred feet away. I can get there almost as fast walking as I can running. Besides, blind obedience to insanity is not something my parents expect of anyone. Not even their weird eight-year-old daughter.

She watched as Lexi stepped into the trees, following after the others. Then Chrissy ran after them. After all, Mom hadn’t specified which direction to run.

Protector is available from Amazon.com.